Ayurveda

India has a long history of traditional medicine that is well established and integrated not just within the overall medical structure of the country but also blended into the very cultural ethos of the grass root level common man. 1,2 The Indian health system has perhaps the world's largest community-based indigenous system of medicine, and it includes Ayurveda, Unani medicine, Siddha medicine, yoga and naturopathy. 3 These systems of traditional Indian medicine along with homeopathy are abbreviated as AYUSH. Over 65% of the population in rural areas of India is using AYUSH medicines to for the primary health care needs.4 The AYUSH practitioners (over 700,000) 5 outnumber the allopathic medical doctors (approximately 633,000) in India, with over 400,000 registered practitioners of Ayurveda accounting for approximately 62% of these qualified doctors.6 Immense popularity of Ayurveda accounts for more than 200 Colleges and Four full-fledged Universities.